Dark Shadows
by FlameShadow41
Summary: This is an account of Shadow the Hegehog's life after his harrowing plummet to earth after falling from the ARK... PG-13 for swearing and Semi-darknyness


The Sun shone through the dense foliage in the hottropical jungle, a dark individual lay in an impacted crater, the shape conformed to that of his sinewy body, the sun reflecting off of the dark fur and red stripes running through his quilled hair and thin arms. He awoke to the mixed smell of brimstone and humid undergrowth. He attempted to stand or at least sit up. But was unable and chuckled lightly to himself, his muscles quivering and pained. "Maria..."  
  
Days passed, and still he was unable to stand. The growth about him moving up his arms and legs, the jets on his shoes occasionally kicking up dust as they malfunctioned. Hunger filled his senses as the darkness took him. The dream was the same he had had for some time. The pale yet lovely face of Maria filling his view, he did not remember what happened in the dream when he awoke or quite what it meant, but remembers having a feeling of helplessness, incapability, and vulnerability. He awoke yet again in a cold sweat, but this time instead of struggling back to his feet, he found that his strength had returned. He was missing his gloves and shoes. He ran his hands through his ruffled quills as he sat up. An IV was attached to his veins, and he felt confused. The black figure spun from his bed and sat on the side. He put one leg down onto the floor and felt it quiver, still unable with his unused and weak muscles. "What is happening? Where am I? Who are you?" He addressed these questions to a creature that had his back turned to him. His hair was wind blown and thrown to one side, in an almost natural curve. The creature turned to the Black figure in the bed who addressed him.  
  
"Shadow... That is your name, isn't it?" Inquired the creature that appeared to be a mechanical to some extent, but the room was dark, and the sun came in dimly through the shades next to Shadow's bed. But he approached Shadow, and then Shadow discovered the creature was made completely of flesh. He removed the flamboyantly large inspecting device that was down over his eyes, and set it on a nearby bench. "You were created to be the ultimate life-form, no? I know all about you, I watched you aboard the ARK. I know who created you and why. And WHAT you are. I know that your need for revenge clouded your mind, to avenge... Maria ... wasn't it?" Shadow was taken off guard by this creature's display of knowledge. "How do you know who I am? And WHO are you? I demand to know!" Stated Shadow as he felt his rasping lungs open and close in a painful manner. "And what am I doing here?"  
  
"Well, it was my Great Grandfather who worked on project Shadow...You...when he was at the top of his field. Bio engineering was all to popular about 50 years ago, When ARK was created and shut down due to some so-called 'Accident'. But what you might be thinking is in-correct, there was more than 1 person working on Project Shadow besides Gerald Robotnik. He meant to create the ultimate life-form. But it was my Great Grand father that corrupted your pure form, during the process of incubating you, to make sure that you did not bring death and suffering to the people of Earth. He was more-so a genius that even that mad genius Gerald Robotnik! Robotnik was blinded by loss, but... My Great Grandad put a near-end to his insanity. It's a good thing you and those other Herosiders put a stop his other failures. *sigh* well I hope I answered your questions. It wasn't hard to see you plummeting through the atmosphere in the middle of the jungle. I found you, thinking it may have been a meteorite, and brought you here. And by the way, I have not properly introduced myself. I am Molh the Hedgehog, nice to meet you, too!"  
  
Mohl the Hedgehog was a cunning warrior that had a sixth sense for science. He was never very intelligent or a very good student. He had a short temper and the power to make him dangerous when he did. He found his love for the life sciences when he about 15 years old. He spent 3 years experimenting with different types of biological engineering, and after those 3 years he made a terrible mistake. He saw his mistake attempting to play God when he created a creature that would have threatened many lives. While battling this creature, he suffered many scars and wounds on his body, including the partial loss of one eye. After studying bionics for a time, he was able to mend that failure. But a change he did not notice was that of his hearing. Each day after he destroyed the monster, his hearing deteriorated, and found changes in pitch to be recognizable, and it annoyed him. He lost his love for music, and after hearing a siren in town one night, he nearly killed 3 people, and from that day on, he wore a pair of pitch regualators that he wears each and every day and moved away to the jungle so that he would not hurt anyone. Mohl was a great warrior, always taking the head on approach to battle, and rightly so. One of his main attributes was the fact he could lift nearly a ½ a ton. But in battle, he always needed to be aware of the sound of battle, the slightest crescendo sending him into a bloodthirsty rage. He stood nearly 5 feet high, tall for someone of his species. He wasn't as fast as his hedgehog cousins Sonic and Shadow. He had Wind blown quills that always curved one way. His eyes were never fully opened and furthered his devious look, however, he was a nice person, treating his allies with respect. His arms were much more muscular than Sonic or Shadow, and wore a pair of finger gloves that had his symbol on them, a curved snake with a steel eye. Mohl was extremely superstitious, donning chains and nut shaped hair ornaments in his quills. His family symbol has been tattooed on his back, a Flaming skull of a wolf, but his past is still a fair mystery to him, no parents or relatives to relieve his questions.   
  
"I...I ... understand now..." Shadow suddenly collapsed to the floor as he tried to stand. "You need rest, it'll be a few days before you will be able to stand again." Spoke Mohl as he attempted to prop Shadow up and back into bed. "He never gives up, does he?" another voice rose from the doorway as a shadowed figure leaned in the door way. "It seems not..." Mohl replied. Shadow caught a glimpse of the Red Dreadlocked figure in the doorway. Shadow eyes widened as he passed out in Mohl's arms.  
  
"Wake up! Wake up!..." A familiar voice echoed in Shadows ears. Shadows high-set eyebrows rose and blinked once or twice. His vision was blurry and twisted. He blinked yet again and rubbed his eyes. A blue quill-haired individual stood above him. "Guys, he's still alive! I can't believe it!" the familiar voice of the blue hedgehog rang out. "S o n I c?" the weak voice box of Shadow forced out. A smile crossed his face as he passed out again. Sonic and Knuckles had heard from Mohl that he had found Shadows crumpled body in the nearby Jungle over the South Pacific. The heroside team were waiting in the labs lobby with Mohl discussing what happened to Shadow, "Who would have guessed that Shadow survived? I mean, He fell through the atmosphere didn't he? Isn't that impossible?" Sonic quizzed the burly form of Mohl. "No, leaping over tall buildings without jumping is impossible, he may of fallen through a temporary hole caused by the firing of the Eclipse cannon at the moon. It was a cycle caused by the emeralds so that Earth's rotation was off, so the Earth had rotated back a full 360 degrees. It IS in theory possible, plus just being filled the energy of the Chaos Emeralds, it may have coursed through his body with just enough power to survive breathing the sulfur in the air." Stated Mohl rather matter-of-factly. "It's still amazing that he's ok though!" as Sonic interrupted Mohls thoughts. "He's far from his old self, though. The power of the Emeralds has drained away his strength very severely. It will take some time to rehabilitate his body" Nearly whispered Mohl. "But he'll get there.^^"   
  
The next 3 weeks was spent quite time-consumingly rehabilitating Shadows weakened Body and mind. After 2 weeks rest, he could walk at a slow pace, 4 days after, he was able to jog slowly. Within 2 months, Sonic and Mohl were able to get Shadows legs up to speed, gaining the ability to run at nearly 10 mph once again. Within the year, the entire heroside team was pitching in at the recovery of Shadow. Sonic was able to re-teach Shadow how to run at nearly the speed he could. After nearly 2 years, Mohl had mastered the hover anti-gravity technology used in the thrusters on Shadows Soap shoes. Shadow was greatly relieved to have them returned to him, along with his lucky gloves. Shadow's mind was sharpened with the help of Miles Prower, now the age of 14. 3 years passed, and Shadow was as good as new. Shadows body had taken on new properties from his experiences with the ARK. He now had a fire like strip running through his Top and Lower sided quills. The Emeralds power still gave him bad dreams at night, often waking in a cold sweat. One night, he awoke even worse than ususal. He almost screamed as the swirling images of death, power, and freedom filled his thoughts. The adrenaline rushed to his head, he almost liked the dream, but his conscious thought made him want to yell out, but the visions of gloom he saw made him feel a sense of purpose. The dream lasted for hours, but eventually, his mind became overwhelmed, and he became scared out of his wits. He wanted to scream badly like before. But he felt as if some outside force was holding him down, barring him from waking from this Hell. But still it continued into the early morning, as he thrashed almost as if in pain, until finally, Mohl entered the room. "Rise and shi..." Mohl halted as he saw the contorted figure of Shadow spring from his bed and dive at him. He moved to the side and found it easy to capture Shadow's tortured form and sooth him. Shadow eventually calmed down, his fur matted against his body from sweat. Mohl brought him to the sick bay to examine him.  
  
"What was that all about?" Inquired Sonic as he heard the noise and came running to the sick bay. "I heard screaming and rushed down here. What was that noise?"  
  
"The others rose from their beds early also, driven to the sick bay by the sickly noises and growls emanating from the domed observation bay, Mohl strapped down Shadow as Amy, Tails, and Sonic watched on the above balcony, sickened by Shadow's crazed eyes. He nearly began to froth at the mouth and it made Amy look away and feel sick in the stomach. Sonic was compelled to look on, as was Tails. The utter chaos that Shadow was going through made Sonic feel pity and purpose at the same time, he felt as if it was HIS job to guide this lost soul away from the path of damnation. Tails turned away also, but instead of being incapacitated by fear he helped Amy off the floor and guided her back to her room.  
  
"Hmmmm. I don't know what's causing this unexpected psychological lapse. But it is disturbing at the least. He's lost in his rage, my analysis shows that he's merely had a dream, but a dream has never whipped anybody into this kind of ra..." Mohl's voice wad drowned out as Shadow's rage built.   
  
"GrrrrRrAAaAAAlLLLllLAAaAAArRRa...FFfrsssssmmmgraaaalll..." The sound was almost nauseating, almost as if bone were grinding together. After about 10 minutes of the bone jarring noise. The only one still in the room was Sonic, watching intently as Shadows chest reared up and down, until finally it stopped and slowed. His eyes began tearing, and Sonic's eyes widened and removed his hand from his chin. He walked into the observation dome and stood next to Shadow. He seemed almost as if he were driven mad by sadness. Sonic knew now that all Shadow had, had been lost.   
  
Sonic merely sat next to Shadow for hours as he helped him through his this terror he had suffered. Shadow finally fell back to sleep, and Sonic went to Mohl for council.  
  
"He seemed almost sad, I watched for nearly an hour, his eyes were starting to tear up, almost as if he were remembering something." read off Sonic. "Hmph, really? Like I said, chances are he merely had a bad dream..." Mohl was interrupted "But that was more of a night terror Damnit! Did you see the way he looked? It was almost sickening watching that! Sorry, but it seemed very serious to me, he looked almost as if he had lost his only friend"   
  
  
  
"Well, I suppose we could interpret his dreams, I have a machine that I could test out, but I have a feeling that not even Shadow knows all about what his dream was. It was probably a subconscious dream. Triggered by something." Mohl suggested.  
  
"Maybe it was the Chaos Emeralds? The first time I used them I was almost the same way, I feel horrible that I, Sonic the Hedgehog nearly killed someone when I was in that state. But Shadow seemed to have nicely mastered their power for that temporary moment when we were fighting that Hazard."  
  
"Maybe *sigh*. I'll have to give him a cross-check."  
  
"I hope that's all he needs..." Sonic finished before the sound of Torment reached his ears as Mohl and He ran toward the sick bay.  
  
"What am I doing here? Help me! Where am I?! Why am I strapped down?!" Shadow yelled out as he woke from his nightmare, struggling and thrashing to escape his bonds. Sonic and Mohl reached the bay in short order. "Don't you remember last night Shadow? You attacked Mohl and scared the Shit out of the rest of us!" Sonic belched out.   
  
"Yes, you were screaming and acting generally insane." Mohl sounded worried as he spoke to Shadow. "It'll be ok, we just needed to keep you in here so you wouldn't hurt anyone."  
  
"What are you talking about Mohl? Let me go! *struggle*" Shadow demanded.  
  
"Just hold it fer a sec Shadow. Calm down!" Sonic pleaded. Shadow calmed down and Mohl unstrapped him. He sat up and had a scared look in his eyes. "Did you record what happened last night?" Asked Shadow rather timidly. Mohl looked up into the high corner of the room. "Yes, I suppose I did."  
  
The next 2 hours were spent in the dark room with Shadow, he watched on with his hand over his mouth and looked like he might lose his lunch. "I did that... do you know why yet Mohl?" Shadow worriedly asked Mohl. "It seems like your mind may have unlocked something from your past when you used those Chaos Emeralds. From what I can tell, it was something you didn't enjoy or were afraid of."  
  
"This scares me, I don't know what to think." Shadow worriedly spoke with his eyes in a rather thoughtful position, he almost cried. "You'll be fine Shadow, there's no need to worry. Be happy that your still ok and that everyone else is too." Put in Mohl rather happily. "I'm sure it's a one time thing"  
  
"I hope your right..." said Shadow. But a horrified look crossed his face as he made his way to the mess hall.  
  
(To make some sense of where this is all occurring, Mohl is one of tails scientific equals and associates and kept in occasional contact, but uses his skill as an engineer more in check, but focused on the sciences of life instead. With Tails' help he was able to formulate a program to help rehabilitate Shadow's body. Mohl found an abandoned Military base to call home away from the prying eyes of the public on an island in the south pacific ocean. The base was greatly out of date, but after many years of concerted effort, Mohl brought it up to speed as a functional Laboratory. Shadow fortunately entered the atmosphere close to Mohl's facility. Pursuing the sciences of life, he thought it may have been a meteorite, but in fact was Shadow, and he found him in a crumpled heap in a crater, so picked him up and brought him back to base. He then contacted Tails and he then contacted Sonic, etc. etc. *phew*)  
  
The rest of the day was spent mostly relaxing as Shadow's recent experience was mentally taxing. He ate a light breakfast and trained a little at night before finally falling asleep. The night was uneventful and Shadow awoke the next day to absolute silence, it pleased him. He rose and went for a run in the Jungle. The humid air rushing through his hair and the motion made him happy. After returning before everyone woke up, he was able to again have a fairly regular day. Until at night that is. He had another night terror, but was unlike the other one in that he spoke in his sleep instead of being physically violent. Mohl decided that Shadow needed constant observation so sat in a nearby chair and listened to him speak in his sleep...  
  
"No, No, I wont, wait, stop it, don't do it, NO! Please stop, it hurts...AH! The burning, Stop it! Turn it off, I don't want to do this anymore! Please Maria! Help me! Make him stop! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" The sound almost threw Mohl off of his chair. "Maria...please help me! Take me away! I want to go! HELP ME!" Mohl watched intently as Shadow began to whimper and tear up. He thrashed once again before settling down. When Mohl asked him the next day about it, he had no recollection of the dream yet again. Knuckles found time in his schedule to get away from the Master Emerald and come see Shadow. "How's he holding up?" the guardian Echidna asked Tails as he came in the front door. "He's actually made a full recovery after the 3 years he's been here. But I'm afraid after these past few days, his mental condition has become worrisome" Tails stated. "Umm... In English please?" Knuckles wasn't the brightest bulb.  
  
"*chuckle* He's been acting weird lately." Tails commented.  
  
"Oooh. Why? What's been happening with him?" Knuckles asked. "Well, he's been almost violent in his sleep. And he's been talking to himself in his sleep, but it's surreal as it seems as if he's actually there when he's remembering it." Tails responded to Knux's question. "Hmmm. I see" Knuckles sounded calm and reserved, almost as if he knew what Shadow was going through. In truth, he did. 


End file.
